Saturday, September 10, 2005

Well, tomorrow is the 4 year anniversary of those terrorist attacks Downtown. And back on August 29, an even bigger disaster hit the Central Gulf Coast.

I'm still trying to forget what happened 4 years ago. At the time, I lived about 5 miles downwind of the Twin Towers. I was unemployed at the time, and thanks to the attacks, my least favorite media outlet (NBC-4) got knocked off the air for about two months. I got a security guard job at a site in Staten Island which overhired security after one of their employees was suspected of being linked to Al Qaeda. Like most of my jobs since I moved to New York, that security job last only a few months.

About two weeks ago, a Category 4 hurricane named Katrina hit the Gulf Coast around Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The storm was huge- causing major damage from Hammond, LA, to Mobile, AL. Most of the damage was on the eastern side of the storm, which is why my sister's residence in Denham Springs, LA, saw far less damage than eastern areas such as Mobile and Biloxi, MS, that were further from the eyewall than Denham Springs. (And yes, my sister and her family escpaed the storm unharmed. Don't send her any money since she'll probably waste it on booze or cigarettes.)

Some disasters just aren't that preventable. Katrina would have still caused a lot of damage because it was an act of nature, not an act of war. But a lot of the deaths from Katrina were preventable. There was hardly any warning for 9/11 before that plane hit the North Tower. There was advance warning for Katrina- at least two days warning from the Weather Channel- and a Hurricane Warning that stretched from Morgan City, LA to the AL/FL border. Most of New Orleans evacuated, but approximately 100,000 people didn't leave the area. Instead of working in advance to evacuate the poorer residents to locations such as Shreveport and Montgomery, the city government opened a shelter of last resort (appoximately 18 hours before the hurricane hit) that only accomodated 10,000.

And now the blame game begins- when they're still evacuating hurricane survivors. Some blame the President, as if he had the authority to re-route a hurricane or to (legally) override the Louisiana authorities. Others blame the New Orleans and Lousiana officials. But it's over, it's done with- now all we can do is to aid the survivors and bury the dead (which according to recent reports looks like it will be less than the 10,000 feared dead originally).

At least with 9/11, there was someone responsible for that carnage- a Wahabist psychopath and terrorist icon by the name of Osama Bin Laden. He even bragged on videotape how the attack went "better than expected". And this psycho wants to do even worse. Recent US actions in Afghanistan and Iraq have hampered his ability to strike the US again. Unfortunately they have not captured Bin Laden. Until then, I can always dream of dragging him by his beard and feeding him to a bunch of hungry piranhas.

And to totally get off topic from the previous discussion, there are piranha feeding videos available for free on the internet- a couple featuring live rats. Now animal rights wackos say those videos are cruel. Hello- piranhas have got to eat, and live rats are considered a delicacy to those fish. And there is a Siamese Fighting Fish called the betta- whose fights the animal rights wackos want to outlaw. I have owned bettas before, and when a male betta sees another male betta, their first instinct is to plume up and attack. (Try putting a mirror in front of a male betta and you will get the same reaction from the fish. I guess this also means there is no such thing as a gay betta.) Male roosters have the urge to attack each other too- yet 48 states have made allowing roosters to attack each other (in a popular-in-other-countries sport called cockfighting) a crime. Only in Louisiana and parts of New Mexico can you legally allow roosters to fight. Other things the animal rights wackos have outlawed are bullfighting, horse meat, and dog meat. This country could save millions by turning over the dogs that the shelters plan to kill over to butchers. Either way, the dogs die- but by using them as food, people actually benefit from dead canines. If you look at the wackos' anti-dogmeat sites, you'll see their true objective: the criminalization of any type of meat eating. Yet these hypocrites see no problems with injecting deadly chemicals into a condemned animal at a shelter, or worse, with the wanton slaughter of human fetuses that occurs daily in the guise of legalized abortion. You know our system is messed up when dogs and lobsters and mice have a greater right to life than the unborn or brain damaged or suicidal humans.

So petition your legislatures to allow dog meat, bullfighting, and cockfighting. Help those hurricane victims any way you can. Pause for a moment of silence at 8:46AM EDT tomorrow. And to all piranha owners with tanks of 2000 gallons or greater- do the world a favor and start feeding your fish members of Al Qaeda or ALF/ELF/PETA.

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About Me

I am an electronic music producer, blogger, writer, commentator, photographer, and an amateur video producer. I have videos on Youtube and 70+ original tracks on HearThis.At and on Soundcloud, as well as a mp3 album/single sales page on Bandcamp and 3 submissions on Indaba Music. My most liked music tracks on Soundcloud are my first original house song, "Up" and a house tune I released at the start of 2014 called "Frustration". 2 of my most liked videos were both shot in May 2013, the first time I stayed in Austin, TX- a video of President Obama's motorcade taken from outside the shelter I was staying at (which was also the first video I ever took on an Android phone), and a film project about Downtown Austin's 6th Street entertainment district. In 2014, I worked in a warehouse in North Austin and contributed music and other stuff to an Austin-based art/media project about low-income and homeless matters called "Am I Invisible". I lived in the NYC area from 1996 to 2007, 2008 to 2010, 2011 to 2014, and from February 2015 to February 2016 after a residential dispute in Colorado Springs cost me my affordable housing (in a probably illegal eviction).